As the painter of the University of Birmingham mural Lanyon was an inspired choice. His aim from the time of his first visit to the campus in January 1963, was to transport his airy Cornish manner of painting to landlocked Birmingham, and to create a picture for walking past, one in which people passing and re-passing in the Faculty of Arts foyer would experience an illusion of openness in which the campus landscape was extended through the building and out onto the other side. He wrote that 'the elements of the mural have been derived from buildings and grass open spaces in the precincts of the University, while a free action of air and weather has been used to impart a sense of time. The static elements are rectangular and triangular while the dynamics are established with curves and figure of eight movements.'